Marlborough Sounds Resource Management Plan provides a mooring, launching and marine servicing function for the growing numbers of recreational boats entering and leaving Havelock by road and by water. The township of Rai Valley has developed as a small rural service settlement providing housing, provisioning and some primary production based industry. Just as people have chosen to live in urban environments in the past, their importance will continue in the future. Urban environments serve a very important function by concentrating and organising urban services. Urban services include such features as sewage disposal, transport linkages, retail services, community facilities and information transfer. Each of the towns is a resource in its own right, requiring sustainable manage- ment. The definition of natural and physical resources includes land, water, soil, minerals, energy, plants, animals and all structures. Urban environments are clearly the host for many of these resources in particular, structures. The Need to Sustainably Manage the Urban Resource In broad management terms it can be seen that the urban environment is the host o many different activities with varying effects. Some of the effects of urban activities are often only felt by other parts of the urban environment. Some effects are more widespread and are in fact effects on the wider environment. In order to sustainably manage the urban environment, some control over the effects of activities is necessary. This will ensure that the urban environment is a pleasant place for people to live in, thereby ensuring its continued viability and sustainability. Some control over the external effects will also be necessary in order to sustainably manage the urban resource. That is, control over the effects of the urban environment or, the environment as a whole, and the effects of other activities on the urban environment. Urban activities which extend into other environments such as rural environments or transport corridors can give rise to conflicts between activities. Urban activities such as residential activities are sensitive to some effects of transport activities such as noise or safety. While there is no requirement in the Act to zone land, the concept of zoning is available as a basic technique of land use control. An important and useful planning tool, it recognises geographical differences in levels of acceptable effect. The advantage of zoning is that it enables areas with different sensitivities to effects to be differentiated. Activities with similar effects are able to be grouped together. Any adverse effects can be confined and limited to a defined area. Zoning provides certainty to land users. A variety of techniques can be employed to avoid such conflicts arising. In some situations buffer areas may be appropriate. In other situations, it may be appropriate to require that more sensitive activities which seek to establish in zones with lower standards of amenity or adjacent to transport corridors be protected by requiring, for example, double glazing or noise baffling. Zoning is a mechanism by which statements of objectives, policies and anticipated environmental results can be formulated for different kinds of areas. It also provides a framework of specific measures to implement those objectives and policies. Zoning is a means of recognising and managing the cumulative 10 - 2